I think not just club J & 10 location of club 8 is also important. Suppose west holds Club KJ3/KJ4/KJ6 or K103/K104/K106 and east shifts to club when in with spade Ace declarer simply puts club 7 and succeeds with his contract. So east would do well to not to shift to clubs when in with spade Ace with holding club 8 and leaves the club guess for declarer.
regards
Shantanu Rastogi
A V Ramana RaoMay 1st, 2026 at 12:13 pm
Hi Barry
But perhaps as the play went, south has a lock. After winning third spade in dummy, cash diamonds and lead spade to hand! reaching four card position. This of course exhausts trumps from south hand but west gets strip squeezed. South knows for certain that west holds high heart and has three remaining cards. No deception is possible in diamond suit. And if west discarded a club earlier retaining a heart, south plays A of clubs and a low club and if west bares heart honor with three clubs, south throws west in with Q of hearts discarding club from dummy forcing west to lead away from K of clubs. As can be seen, east could have spoiled this plan by returning J of heart when in with spade A but south could avert this by leading high spade from dummy after winning diamond finesse instead of prematurely ruffing a heart. If east wins and returns Jack of hearts , south plays low, dummy ruffs , collects trumps, clears diamonds and come to hand with fourth spade for the same play as described which would be quite elegant
Regards
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Bridge-related
Hi
I think not just club J & 10 location of club 8 is also important. Suppose west holds Club KJ3/KJ4/KJ6 or K103/K104/K106 and east shifts to club when in with spade Ace declarer simply puts club 7 and succeeds with his contract. So east would do well to not to shift to clubs when in with spade Ace with holding club 8 and leaves the club guess for declarer.
regards
Shantanu Rastogi
Hi Barry
But perhaps as the play went, south has a lock. After winning third spade in dummy, cash diamonds and lead spade to hand! reaching four card position. This of course exhausts trumps from south hand but west gets strip squeezed. South knows for certain that west holds high heart and has three remaining cards. No deception is possible in diamond suit. And if west discarded a club earlier retaining a heart, south plays A of clubs and a low club and if west bares heart honor with three clubs, south throws west in with Q of hearts discarding club from dummy forcing west to lead away from K of clubs. As can be seen, east could have spoiled this plan by returning J of heart when in with spade A but south could avert this by leading high spade from dummy after winning diamond finesse instead of prematurely ruffing a heart. If east wins and returns Jack of hearts , south plays low, dummy ruffs , collects trumps, clears diamonds and come to hand with fourth spade for the same play as described which would be quite elegant
Regards
AVFRR –
Looks good to me!